This coming weeks events.

2010-3-13
Leaving 99 Crusade
Celebrity Spin with Meredith Miller
University of Colorado CRIT

2010-3-14
March Practice Criterium
Universtiy of Northern Colorado CRIT

The show took place at Indy Ink in Denver - a super cool shop that designs and prints their own t-shirts. Last Friday night it was transformed into a gallery opening (as is the case most First Fridays) and race headquarters for the start and finish of an alleycat.

The f/STOPS show was curated by Broox Pulford. The show featured a variety of photos dedicated to the image of the bicycle, from a picture of Lance Armstrong mountain biking to an artful black and white developed on real film. The 20 plus artists and the alleycat drew quite a crowd that ebbed and flowed throughout the evening.

Photo from everymantri.com

Lance Armstrong tweeted yesterday
"I hear my good friend and Colorado Governor Bill Ritter had a bike crash and broke some ribs. Gov, be careful!! Get well soon."

And BikeDenver reports on Ritter's bike crash, apparently he was riding with others when his front tire caught of edge of the cyclist in front of him. The result is some road rash and broken ribs. Get well Gov.

One of his riding buddies who was on the ride with him at the time was quoted saying, "He rides a road bike," Dreyer said. "And may need to be riding a newer road bike after today."

Any bike shops want to jump to this opportunity to fit the gov with a new bike?

This important announcement came out yesterday from my Community Cycles source. There is also an Letter to the Editor in the Daily Camera today on this topic.

The Community Cycles advocacy committee has been monitoring the discussions of the Boulder County Subdivision Paving Group. This group is working with the county to decide what to do about deteriorating subdivision roads in the county and who will pay to repave them. Many of these roads are very local - not through roads- and simply access houses in the various subdivisions in the county. The county does repairs and snow removal on these roads, but does not have the funding to repave them. The policy of the county not repaving these roads is fairly old. The subdivision residents may have know this for years and should have been informed when they purchased their homes, but the county admits they have done a poor job in the past making residents aware of this policy.

[Continued From Part 1 Ann Trombley Interview]

[303cycling] Tell us about the work you do with junior cycling?
[Ann] Riding with and training the Juniors is really inspiring and gratifying. The team started when a group of juniors and parents got together and told Linda Behlen, Mike Eubank and myself that they wanted a junior team that would train and race together. We said "let’s do it." It has since evolved into Boulder Junior Cycling which encompasses both the Tokyo Joe's Junior Team and the Boulder Junior Cycling Team.

Tokyo Joe's Junior Team is the U19 team of cat 1 and cat 2 racers from 15-19 years old. They are some incredibly fast kids who are wonderful ambassadors for the sport. They pretty much spank me on the trails. Then we have the U15, Boulder Junior Cycling Team. These are kids from 11-15 years old. They are psyched about riding mountain bikes and would like to try a few races. Some of these kids are also amazingly fast and they will try anything you ask. "Let’s ride across those wet rocks." And they go for it even if they have only been on bikes for a month. The saying "No Fear" comes from this group.

We also embarked on a junior cyclo-cross team this fall. We rode every Tuesday and Thursday after school - rain, sleet or snow. And these guys and gals raced almost every Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 in the morning. Can you say, Dedication?! Although there was also much crying and crashing, these kids toughed out the most brutally snowy cross courses. This was thanks in large part to Larry Leith of Tokyo Joe's, Dave Wert of the Trek Store and Brandon Dwight of Boulder Cycle Sport, just to name a few of our generous sponsors.

Recently I had time to ask former professional mountain biker now cycling coach / physical therapist Ann Trombley a few questions (this will be a two part interview).

[303Cycling] Give us a little background on Ann Trombley.
[Ann] Born in Michigan.  Raised in Oakland, California by a single mom with 3 kids.   After grade school, I was in a school system where I learned how to fight and dance but not much education.  After being threatened several times while in 8th grade, I decided I would not be going to school any more. We moved to Marin County my freshman year and I was riding my mom's oversized 10 Speed to school.  A friend of mine, Phil Desrosiers, got together with my family and friends to buy me a Mountain bike for my 21st birthday.  That was 1984. For the next ten years, I had an amazing time riding mountain bikes all over the Mount Tam area with a great group of guys.  There were not many women riding at that time.  I will always remember the first time I rode up Fish Gulch from Phoenix Lake.  We got two-thirds of the way up and I pulled over in tears crying and blubbering to my friend, "why did you think I could ride up this?!".  Fish Gulch is now one of my favorite short cuts to get up Mount Tam.  It is pretty darn steep. After studying and working for several years, I got into P.T. school in Denver Colorado.  While in school I met Stan Vinet who dragged me to my first mountain bike race in the hills above Boulder.  That was1994. I think it was up Sugarloaf on someone's private property.  I was always really scared to race so he had to convince me to go.  I won my first race as a beginner.  I remember finishing the race with a flat tire.  AND I won a shock.  They had a spaghetti feed for everyone after the race.  I was hooked.

[303Cycling] What was it like racing in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney?

Last week we reported on how Eldora is seeking input to their Master Plan and thanks to Mike Barrow and others at the BMA, they attended some of these events and provided some information to the story of riding at Eldora someday. This is one of the ways BMA are helping riders!

Eldora Mountain Resort is in the process of planning out their next decade and BMA is pushing to get some great summer use out of our favorite local winter ski resort!

Because of the ski area sits on USFS land, Eldora is required to have a master plan and periodically update it.

Boulder County's Transportation department is currently making improvements to the tragic intersection of 63rd and Diagonal Hwy. This was the place where Nederland cyclist was killed a few years ago. Not that these improvements could have prevented such a horific accident the intersection as it stands today is one waiting to happen.

Improvements include creating a bike lane for north bound cyclist from Lookout Road to the intersection and for south bound cyclist the existing bike path will be extended to the west bound intersection. There will also be improvement to the light controls that at the moment rarely every work for cyclist forcing them to run a red light or wait for a car to arrive.
For more information on Cycling and pedistrian improvements at 63rd and Diagonal.

Click to see full plans

The City of Boulder recently sent out an RFP - "Driven to Drive Less." The goals of which are "to stimulate long term travel behavior change in participants and to creatively demonstrate to the general public the ability of Boulder residents to live car free or car lite."

While you should read the RFP for yourself, here are some of the examples given to perspective marketing firms:

A possibility that City Staff has considered for this task includes a city wide casting call for participants modeled after popular reality shows like “Survivor” or the “Greatest Job in the World,"

As the CDOT Scope of Work indicates, possibilities presented by City Staff include paying a nominal amount of cash to participants each day, giving more significant grand prizes for “winners” from each tier, or providing gifts/discounts from sponsors for participating or completing special “game show” type challenges.

Click for more Information